Cancer is a disease that begins with mutation of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Mutation of these critical genes allows for a cancer cell to evolve and ultimately results in pathogenic replication (a loss of normal regulatory control leading to excessive cell proliferation) of various given types of cells found in the human body. Tumor formation, tumor survival, and cancer metastasis require anchorage-independent growth and protection from genotoxin-induced apoptosis and anoikis, a programmed cell death mechanism associated with detachment of tumor cells from an extracellular substrate. Tumor cells require protection from apoptosis and anoikis to invade surrounding tissue and to undergo metastasis.
There remains a need in the art for methods for treating or preventing cancer and, in particular, for methods which slow or curb tumor growth and prevent metastasis.